Renormalizability of the functional Schroedinger picture in Robertson--Walker space-time

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1989 · Annals of Physics (New York); (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-4916(89)90354-0· OSTI ID:5285783

Eboli, O ^[1]; Pi, S; Samiullah, M ^[2]

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1. Center for Theoretical Physics, Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (US)
2. Department of Physics, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston Massachusetts 02215

We study free and self-interacting scalar quantum field theories in a flat Robertson-Walker metric in the functional Schroedinger picture. We discuss Schroedinger picture quantization, relating it to conventional Heisenberg picture quantization. For the interacting theory, we introduce the time-dependent Gaussian approximation to study time evolution of pure and mixed states and we establish renormalizability of the approximation. We also study the question of computing a finite, renormalized energy-momentum tensor for both the free and the interacting theory in the Gaussian appproximation. Using the adiabatic expansion, we show that the entire subtration necessary to make the the energy-momentum tensor finite in the free theory can be written in terms of covariantly conserved tensors. We further show that the same subtraction is sufficient to make the energy-momentum tensor finite in the Gaussian approximation for the interacting theory provided that the mass and coupling constants are renromalized. {copyright} 1989 Academic Press, Inc.

• OSTI ID: 5285783
• Journal Information: Annals of Physics (New York); (USA), Journal Name: Annals of Physics (New York); (USA) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 193:1; ISSN APNYA; ISSN 0003-4916
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640106 -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmology
645400* -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
COUPLING CONSTANTS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS
ENERGY-MOMENTUM TENSOR
EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
FIELD EQUATIONS
FIELD OPERATORS
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONALS
FUNCTIONS
HEISENBERG PICTURE
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
MASS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUANTUM OPERATORS
RENORMALIZATION
SCALAR FIELDS
SCHROEDINGER PICTURE
SPACE-TIME
TENSORS
TIME DEPENDENCE
VACUUM STATES
VARIATIONAL METHODS